Monthly Archives: March 2015

I didn’t expect my fellow southerners to applaud when I decided to support Obama’s campaign. The South has a long history of both racial discord and xenophobia, after all. So I knew that mine would be a lonely voice crying in the Republican wilderness.

I was not at all prepared, however, for the flood of vitriol that accompanied the election, or for the venom directed at me for my choice of candidates. The hostility would have been bad enough had it come from all quarters. But, overwhelmingly, those who wallowed the most in irrational hatred were the same people who call themselves followers of Christ.

I wish I could say that these feelings on their part have abated since 2008. But, if anything, they have worsened. Adding to the pain I feel is the vicious refusal on the part of Christians to tolerate another point of view. They are lightning-quick to condemn anyone who dissents from their poisonous, paranoid beliefs.

Yet, at the same time, they joyfully embrace any lie that supports their malignant mindset. Not only are democrats, liberals and homosexuals wrong in their opinion, they are enemies of God bent on turning America into a Socialist dictatorship.

When challenged to provide proof for their accusations, however, these same “Christians” resort to vile insults and screaming matches.

The reason for all this unfounded fury is that these good Christian souls have no proof for their claims. They have only fear and anger.

I could endure all of the affronts to decency I have mentioned thus far, were they coming from average, everyday “sinners.” But the same people who spout this cancerous babble are those who claim to worship a man who said things like these:

“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Jesus made no exceptions to the above rules – not for Barack Obama, not for Hillary Clinton, and not for Ellen DeGeneres. He meant them to apply to everyone.

Yes, even Muslim terrorists.

Yes, even Hitler.

I wish I were half as creative as the Christians who bend facts and logic into pretzel-like configurations to escape the clear meaning of the Savior’s words. The truth is, however, that all their rationalizations will not help them when the Man whom they claim to follow says, “I never knew you. Depart from me, ye cursed ones, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.”

It gives me no joy to think of these people paying with either eternal torment or everlasting annihilation for their vicious hypocrisy. Rather, it breaks my heart. But they refuse to listen to reason or to scripture. All that matters to them is their lust for power. And for money. And for blood.

When one cannot cure those suffering from a contagious illness, then the only rational thing to do is to get as far from the sick ones as possible, lest the would-be physician fall victim to the same disease. Thus, it is with boundless sorrow that I say I am walking away from the Church. I wish I had another choice.